Reading Response on Matched

          It’s true, I have an obsession with science fiction. Recently I have been reading more of it than usual. I finished reading Matched yesterday and am on to Crossed, by Ally Condle. Now this may be just my opinion but I wasn’t extremely impressed with the book because I feel like the plot line was exactly the same as all the other sci-fi books. The characters live in a futuristic world where there are tons of rules to keep the prisoners “safe.” Now although I was not totally impressed by the plot line, the book does bring up some interesting ideas to think about that take a look at the life we live today and questions it.

          The whole “Society” is shaped around being better than the past life when the decades were thought to be chaotic and harmful. For example, when the Society took rule of the people, they decided life was too cluttered with stuff so they limited the poems, artwork, and music citizens can enjoy down to a list of 100. The rest were destroyed. But I wonder, why was all that art considered to be clutter? I don’t think it is bad at all to have a wide range of art to look at or listen to. If this were the law today, why would painters even paint pictures, or composers compose songs if only 100 would be chosen to be available to the public? I think that the Society judged what should be put into the 100 songs/100 paintings/100 poems by substance. I think that the Society believes some art works will put rebellious ideas into peoples heads, or even just thoughts that aren’t as peaceful or uniform as the Society would like them to be.

          Also, each citizen is only allowed one Artifact. An Artifact is an object from the past years, often passed down from generation to generation. Cassia’s Artifact is a gold stopwatch given to her by her grand-father. I really want to know why they are only allowed one Artifact. It’s not like they are dangerous for you. They are the things that keep the past alive! Unless of course, the Society doesn’t want to keep the past alive. At one point in the story, the artifacts are taken away from everyone because “a person who did not own an artifact was seen with one” and “this way it will be fairer for those who do not own artifacts.” I think the Society had a greater reason behind taking them all away, other than to make it “fairer”.

          While reading this book I was forced to think about life today and the principles we live by. While I agree that society can be chaotic, messy, and full to the brim with art, at times, I certainly think it is better than to have a limited selection. I’m also not saying that more is better than less, but in this situation I would choose the disorganization over rules and laws and more rules. 

Non Fiction post #2 Dance on depression

           The article “Dance Intervention Improves Self-Rated Health of Girls With Internalizing Problems” documents the finding the use of dance as a type of therapy on112 girls (age 13-18) in Sweden struggling with depression and other psychological stress.  Since exercise is known to raise spirits and help cope with depression, 59 girls of the group suffering from pains, headaches and increased tiredness were sent to participate in dance classes twice a week for eight months. The other 53 were assigned to the control group. The main results were that the group participating in the dance class had a higher improved Self Rated Health. According to the authors, the girls showed “high adherence and positive experience,” (Duberg, 1).

            The author wants the reader to understand that dance can result in positive experiences for young girls, and the use of more healthy lifestyles. The authors make this clear by repeating this sentence more than once in throughout the article. They also use words such as "The key finding” and “high adherence,” showing that they truly believe dance is an effective method to beat psychological problems.

I found it interesting how Ann Duberg and her colleagues from the Centre for Health Care Sciences, Örebro County Council and Örebro University, Sweden went about doing the experiment. The fact that they were interested in dance instead more conventional treatment like medication or psycho therapy for treating girls who were suffering from depression or anxiety was intriguing. Further, I was impressed and please to find that dance was more effective than the control group without. It is reassuring to know that letting off steam and expressing your emotions through dance can be helpful for suffering teens. 

I always get mad when people tell me, “dance isn’t a sport.” In my book, something that burns calories, exercises both sides of your body, keeps you in shape and is a way to express your emotions is a sport. Now that we some evidence that dance is a possible method to help adolescent girls through stress related problems, are we going to use this method more and more? I know for a fact that after I dance I feel a whole lot more relaxed. Also, although not as many boys would be interested in this program would it work for them? Either way, it is always good to know about more ways to help teens.

Bibliography:

. "Scienec Daily." Science News. November 12, 2012. . February 12, 2012 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121112171319.htm>.